Telling the Story of War Through Art

Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter was on guard on a rooftop in Afghanistan last November when someone lobbed a hand grenade at him and changed his life forever.  He had just turned 21.  

This past spring, still hospitalized from his grievous injuries, Carpenter agreed to let a combat artist sketch him. Two of those drawings are included in the Curated Military Art Exhibition now on display at the Workhouse Arts Center. The exhibit runs through the end of July.

Carpenter suffered a traumatic brain injury, and other injuries including 30 fractures in his right arm, loss of vision, damage to his eardrum and a collapsed lung. “I died three times on the Medivac,” he said.

He has undergone three operations so far and is now recovering at home in South Carolina but traveled to Lorton for a reception over the July 4^th weekend.

Carpenter told Lorton Patch that he wanted to tell his story so that people know that “there are severely hurt guys that need help.” He said he personally knows at least 20 double amputees from his hospital stays.

Carpenter said he thought of making the military his career but he was only two years in when he was hurt and probably will be out in another two. Then he hopes to go to college to study history and science.

In one sketch, the injuries to Carpenter’s face and arm are quite evident. His mother, who accompanied him to the reception, said it still looks just like him.

The exhibit is devoted to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Curator Marti Kirkpatrick said she wanted to focus on those battles “as a reminder that we’re still fighting two wars” and because “only 1 percent of the country has skin in the game.”

Every branch of the military is represented in the exhibition, which also includes pieces from the Combat Paper Project. Veterans shred their uniforms and use the pieces to make the paper.  One Army National Guard veteran created a portrait of Saddam Hussein that he calls “Piss Infinity Saddam.”

The exhibit is laid out to tell a story, Kirkpatrick said. It starts with training exercises, then depicts “the battle for hearts and minds.” There are several works of American medics treating injured or sick Iraqis. An Air Force artist used oil for the vivid colors in “Have Stethoscope, Will Travel,’’ in which a medic tends to a young child.

In a large oil painting titled, “Trust Me it is Trail Mix,” an Iraqi boy eyes a soldier’s offer of food warily. A Navy artist painted “Helping Hands,” featuring a serviceman pushing a young boy on a swing.

The next room shows scenes of fighting, as well as soldiers enjoying downtime, including a female Marine taking a nap while she waits for a plane.  From there, visitors are drawn to artwork of medics tending wounded Americans in the field. And then there are the graphic sketches of the wounded warriors that mince no words.

One panel tells the story of Marine Cpl. Mathew Bowman and was done while he was recovering at Bethesda Naval Hospital in March. In pencil on paper, the artist writes that Bowman “lost both legs, half of his left thumb, his left index and pinky fingers & three of his front teeth when he stepped on an IED while on patrol in Afghanistan.”

In the next sketch, Bowman “can’t remember what happened the day he was hurt so he talks about the day his squad first took contact as his wife, Paige, listens.” And in the next scene, Bowman’s father gives him a sip of water during a break in physical therapy.

The artist who drew Bowman’s story, Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Bates, said it’s awkward at first but the wounded warriors are “heavy spirited and don’t do ‘woe is me.’”

“These guys want to tell their story” and want people to see that they are not ashamed of their wounds. Bates said.  “They’re heroes.”

As she officially opened the exhibit, Kirkpatrick said it  is meant to “support our troops, to stand with our wounded and to never forget our fallen.